Six years ago today, organizations all across the Internet came together as part of World IPv6 Launch to permanently enable IPv6 on their networks. Today, from that tiny launch the global Internet has grown to where over 25% of users are regularly connecting over IPv6. In some regions, this is significantly higher. For example, 237 million people in India connect over IPv6. Some mobile operators have over 80 or 90% of their devices connecting over IPv6. 28% of the Alexa Top 1000 websites are IPv6-enabled.

We’ve come an amazing distance in six years! To mark this 6th anniversary, we at the Internet Society celebrated with:

• a refreshed State of IPv6 Deployment 2018 report
• an infographic with information from the report
• a press release and blog posts at Internet Society and World IPv6 Launch
• a video message from Vint Cerf
• a fun interactive quiz to test your IPv6 deployment knowledge and share with your social network
• updates on social networks, primarily out of https://twitter.com/worldipv6launch/ and using the #v6launch hashtag

Many other organizations, companies, universities and individuals have joined into the activity as well. Some of the other posts I’ve seen include:

• Akamai: Six years since World IPv6 Launch: entering the majority phases
• APNIC are running a week of IPv6 content including an online training component:
  • Advice for migrating to IPv6 in an ISP environment
  • IPv6 Launch Anniversary Fundamentals tutorial
• ARIN: What drives IPv6 deployment?
• CIRA: We need translation services in internet exchange points
• Facebook: How IPv6 deployment is growing in U.S. and other countries
• IETF: An update from Bob Hinden about IETF activity and IPv6 deployment
• ISOC Nepal Chapter: press release on the need to grow IPv6 in Nepal
• JPNIC: summarising the status of IPv6 deployment in Japan
• LACNIC: held a Webinar (in Spanish) yesterday and will make a recording available
• LinkedIn: Celebrating World IPv6 Launch Day (And Six Years of IPv6) at LinkedIn
• Oracle Dyn Internet Intelligence: IPv6 Adoption Still Lags In Federal Agencies
• RIPE NCC:
  • hosting an online EDUCA event about IPv6 deployment
  • IPv6 Launchiversary: the View from RIPE Atlas and K-root
• UK IPv6 Council: Six Years of IPv6 in the UK

And more seeming to be posted all the time to the #v6launch hashtag on Twitter or in /r/ipv6/ on Reddit. (And feel free to leave additional links in the comments.)

Of course, we’re not done. There’s still the rest of the Internet that needs to make the migration! But the excuse that “no one is doing IPv6” is gone. For so many people and networks, IPv6 is the new normal and is the future of Internet connectivity.

Today is a day for celebration—and then we need to get back to help turning on the “production” Internet for everyone else!

If you haven’t started yet, or are trying to understand how you start the migration to IPv6, there are now many resources out there. I’d, of course, recommend the Internet Society’s Deploy360 resources on IPv6, but I’m just a wee bit biased since I helped build that site in a previous role.

Regardless… just get started now!

P.S. And if you are a network operator already offering IPv6 to your customers, please consider registering as part of the World IPv6 Launch effort to help us with measurements.